Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-11-26

Sacramento. You see you can't prove
thing agin them unless you take them OF
fly.' 1t may be part of Joaquin Murit''
band, though wouldn't swear to it,"
"The leader might have been Gentlen
George, from up country" interposed pa
senger "He seemed to throw in a few fam:
touches, particerly in that Good nigh,
Sorter chucked a little sentiment in il
Didn't seem to be the same thing eZ Git, We
id suckers on the other line"
"Whoever he was he knew the road anG
the men who travelled on it. Like ez not b,
went over the line beside the driver on the
box on the down trip, and took stock Of
everything. He even knew l had those
greenbacks, though they were handed to me
in the bank at Sacramento. He must have
been hangin' round there"
For some moments Hale remained silent.
He was a civic-bred man, with an intense love
of law and order; the kind of man who is the
first to take that law and order into his own
hands when he does not find it existing to
please him. He had Bostonian's respect for
respectability, tradition and propriety, but
priety to create order elsewhere. He was
fond of nature with these limitations, never
quito trusting her unguded instincts, and
finding her as an instructress greatly in
ferior to Harvard university, though posi-
bly not to Cornell. With dauntless enter
prise and energy he had built and stocked
charming cottage farm in nook in the
Sierras, whence he opposed, like the lesser
Englishman that he was, his own tastes to
those of the alien west. In the present in
stance he felt it incumbent upon him not
only to assert his principles, but to act upon
them with his usual energy. How far be
was impelled by the half contemptuous
passiveness of his companions it would be
difficult to say
"What is to prevent the pursuit of them at
once?" he asked suddenly. "We are few
miles from the station, where horses can be
procured"
"Who's to do it7" replied the other lazily.
1.-THE stage company will lodge the complaint
with the authorities, but it will take two days
to get the county officers out, and it's nobody
else's funeral"
81 will go for one" said Hale quietly II
have horse waiting for me at the station,
and can start at once"
There was an instant of silence, The stage
coach had left the obscurity of the forest, and
by the stronger light Hale could perceive that
his companion was examining him with two
colorless, lazy eyes Presently he said, meet
ing Haie's clear glance, but rather as it yield
ing to a careless reflection:
sit might be done with four men. We
oughter raise one man at the station" He
paused II don't know ez I'd mind taking
hand myself" he added, stretching out his
legs with a slight yawn.
"Ye can count me in, if you're goin>, kernel.
reckon I'm talkin' to Kernel Clinch," said
the passenger beside Hale with sudden alac-
rity. I'm Rawins of Frisco. Herd of ye
afore, kernel and kinder spotted you jist
now from your talk"
To Hale's surprise the two men, after awk-
wardly and perfunctorily grasping each
others hand, entered at once into languld
conversation on the recent election at Fresno,
without the slightest further reference to the
pursuit of the robbers. 1t was not until the
remaining and undenominated passenger
turned to Hale, and, regretting that he had
immediate business at the Summit, offered to
accompany the party if they would wait
couple of hours, that Col Clinch briefly re-
turned to the subject
"Four men will do, and ez we'll hev to take
horses from the station We'll hev to take the
fourth man from there"
With these words he resumed his uninter-
esting conversation with the equally uninter-
ested Rawlins, and the undenominated pas
senger subsided into an admiring and dreamy
contemplation of them both. With all his
principle and really high minded purpose,
Hale could not help feeling constrained and
ANNOYED at the sudden subordinate and aux
.liary position to which he, the protector of
the enterprise had been reduced. 1t was true
that he had never offered himself as their
leader; it was true that the principle he
wished to uphold and the effect he sought to
obtain would be equally demonstrated under
another; it was true that the execution OF his
own conception gravitated by some occult
impulse to the man who had not sought it,
and whom he had always regarded as an in
capable. But all this was so unlike precedent
or tradition that, after the fashion of con-
servative men, he was suspicious of it, and
only that his honor was now involved he
would have withdrawn from the enterprise.
There was still chance of reasserting him
self at the station, where, he was known,
and where some authority might be deputed
to him.
But even this prospect failed. The station,
half hotel and half stable, contained only the
landlord, who was also express agent, and the
new volunteer whom Clinch had suggested
would be found among the stable men. The
nearest justice of the peace was ten miles
away, and Hale had to abandon even his
hope of being sworn In as deputy constable
This introduction of a common and illiterate
ostler into the party on equal terms with
himself did not add to his satisfaction, and a
remark from Rawlins seemed to complete
his embarrassment